Groupon goes IPO, The Industry Weighs In

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  • Groupon stock was priced at $20, but opened at $28, hitting $30 minutes after trading began. That values that company now 12.7 billion. AllThingsD.com’s Kara Swisher broke the news late Thursday, adding that, “It will be interesting to see if, as it endured loud critics when it was private, if short sellers will pile onto the social buying company now that it is public.”

    That skepticism around the “daily deals” IPO was echoed throughout the industry. While the Chicago based company reaches 150 million users daily, according to The Wall Street Journal it remains, “an Internet darling with no profits but plenty of momentum”. Techcrunch was quick to point out, “The company lost $420 million last year and $117.1 million in the first quarter of 2011 mainly due to expansion and marketing costs… a fact that does not go unnoticed by potential investors and armchair Twitter pundits many of whom could not resist the ‘sign of a bubble/apocalypse’ talk or lame deal jokes this morning.”

    Many are looking at the Groupon IPO to see how others like Facebook and Zynga might fare in the public trading sphere.


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